Over the years, I have of course discovered that not all children in Turkey get as much attention or are treated with the same respect. The story of little Bedrettin, a 5-year-old tissue seller who was found beaten to a pulp by street kids barely older than himself, is today generating heated debate on the irresponsibility of parents sending kids barely out of infancy to work the streets and the state’s failure to address the issue of street children and child neglect or abuse. The case of Leyla Alkış, a 10-year-old girl locked into the refrigerator of a fast food outlet by its angry manager, had briefly monopolized attention in a similar way in 2004.Sadly, while these cases, reminiscent of Andersen’s tale of “The Little Match Girl,” cause outrage, they have not yet resulted in the government adopting a comprehensive child policy, despite the fact that Turkey is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Fewer children are kept out of the education system and child labor has decreased in recent years, but thousands of vulnerable youngsters are still sent out at an early age to earn a living, exploited by criminal gangs or by parents unable to cope with poverty and unemployment.
Bedrettin had been caught on several occasions and his parents fined, but each time the child was returned to his family. Social services either failed to follow up and keep a close eye on the little boy and his siblings, or they were reluctant to take more drastic action.
Knowing when to intervene and take a child into care is a dilemma for social services anywhere, whether the case involves domestic abuse, child labor or both. Wait too long and you put the child’s life at risk; act too hastily and you tear a family apart.
In Turkey, the authorities’ approach often seems influenced by a desire to protect the family unit rather than the individuals within it. Most parents have their children’s best interests at heart, but some either lack the parenting skills or are simply overwhelmed by unemployment and poverty.
Children are also still not fully recognized as individuals with rights of their own, distinct from those of their elders. The top down structure that still permeates the society and denies ordinary people their individual rights -- but is in the process of changing -- is in many ways mirrored by the top down hierarchy within the family.
Turkey has experienced a major exodus from the countryside to cities in recent decades, but a mentality that sees children as unpaid laborers -- common in areas of the world where subsistence agriculture is the main means of survival – still exists in some circles. A few years ago, I was sitting around a table with businessmen and farmers in Şanlıurfa, discussing agriculture in the Harran Plain. When I asked about their investments in heavy machinery, they laughed. “Why would we buy expensive machines when we have women and children to work in the fields?” one of them told me. “You give them a piece of bread, a tomato and an onion and they work all day. No need for maintenance,” he chuckled.
Official figures released in 2007 suggest that close to a million children under 17 were involved in some form of economic activity, 320,000 of them between the age of 6-14. Children are still employed as seasonal workers in agriculture, while girls are often kept at home to perform household chores or look after younger siblings. In the cities, they are often begging or selling in the streets, vulnerable to predators.
Bedrettin’s story should spur a review of the way social services handle “at risk” cases and promote more proactive policies to protect street children and give them a future. Incidentally, the little girl rescued from the freezer six years ago is now a university student.
